Iron, Coal, Wood

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Maybe you don’t remember the days of the earliest coal-fired stoves. They changed domestic life, and that changed society. We take you back to that era, and to millennia prior when iron was first smelt, and even earlier, when axe-handles were first fashioned from wood, as we explore how three essential materials profoundly transformed society. We were once excited about coal’s promise to provide cheap energy, and how iron would lead to indestructible bridges, ships, and buildings. But they also caused some unintended problems: destruction of forests, greenhouse gases and corrosion. Did we foresee where the use of wood, coal, and iron would lead? What lessons do they offer for our future? Guests: Jonathan Waldman – Author of Rust: The Longest War. Ruth Goodman – Historian of British social customs, presenter of a number of BBC television series, including Tudor Monastery Farm, and the author of The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything. Roland Ennos – Professor of biological sciences at the University of Hull and author of The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization. originally aired February 1, 2021 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:04.2	I'm Matt Kaplan, the host of Safeguarding Sound Science, Evolution Edition.
0:09.6	Evolution is the unifying principle of biology, yet it still breeds controversy a century
0:15.3	and a half after Charles Darwin.
0:17.7	Join us as we meet the passionate researchers and communicators who are expanding our knowledge
0:23.0	and fighting to keep good science in our schools and politics. Subscribe to Safeguarding
0:29.0	Sound Science on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you like to listen.
0:46.8	The future is so bright, we have to wear shades.
0:50.0	And in the future, who knows what those shades will be made of?
0:55.5	The 21st century promises to be the century of new materials and fuels, but our modern world was built with materials and fuels that at the time were very new. They made life better,
1:00.5	but there were also downsides. We were once excited about coal's promise to provide cheap energy
1:05.5	and how iron would create indestructible buildings, bridges, and ships. But today, rust and greenhouse gases
1:12.3	are formidable foes. Did we foresee the consequences of using these basic materials? And what
1:18.9	lessons does that have for our future? I'm Seth Shostak. I'm Molly Bentley. This is Big Picture
1:24.2	Science, produced at the SETI Institute. In this episode, we look to the future by looking back at how three essential materials
1:31.4	changed the world, the improvements they brought, along with the serious consequences that
1:37.1	were not recognized at the time.
1:39.1	This episode, Iron, Coal, Wood.
1:56.0	Music Iron, Coal Wood. Here's the thing about that superhero Iron Man.
1:58.0	He's built himself a strong suit of armor,
2:01.4	powered so he can fly and outfitted with all sorts of nifty weapons.
2:05.2	He's supposed to be indestructible.
	...

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